Perennial wheat is a dream for many farmers. The idea is quite appealing: sow once and then reap the rewards for several consecutive years. Research on this promising direction is currently being conducted by scientists, including in our country. The Kazakhstani breeder Alexey Morgunov shared insights with the ElDala.kz portal.
- It's such a delight - sowing it and then just harvesting, - noted Alexey Morgunov. - Naturally, cultivated wheat is an annual plant. To impart perennial traits, it must be crossbred with a wild relative. In this case, it is bluegrass, a common cereal grass that is harvested for hay. This is already a perennial crop. When breeders combine these two genomes, an intermediate wheat-like crop is produced. It has characteristics of wild wheat - a thinner, longer ear, and it is perennial.
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Alexey Morgunov, in collaboration with the Kazakh Institute of Agriculture and Plant Growing, is conducting an experiment on growing perennial wheat near Almaty. The scientist notes that the first attempts to create perennial wheat were made in Russia under the guidance of academician Tsytsin back in the 1930s. However, this direction is currently being developed by Americans, who are happily sharing their findings with colleagues from other countries.
Therefore, Alexey Morgunov brought seeds from the USA and sowed one field in 2022, harvesting the first yield in 2023 (10 centners per hectare). This year, in 2024, the second harvest has already been obtained from this plot (20 centners per hectare). The wheat has now entered its third year – the next season is also expected to yield from this plot sown in 2022.
- We obtained the seeds from the Land Institute in Kansas (USA), - Alexey Morgunov explained. - This is a private institute focused on creating perennial food crops of various types. They have developed the Kernza variety of perennial wheat, which features a very strong root system that penetrates the soil to a depth of up to 3 meters. However, the grain size is about 50 percent smaller than that of traditional wheat. So, flour from perennial wheat is mainly used as an additive to regular flour there.
The goal of the experiments conducted by Kazakh scientists is to ensure that this wheat is indeed perennial and allows for harvests for at least three consecutive years. Additionally, the cultivation technology itself is being developed, particularly focusing on the seeding rate. The current American seeds are very expensive, costing up to $25,000 per ton. However, the seeding rate will likely be about 10 times lower than that of traditional wheat, approximately 12-13 kg per hectare.
It is also necessary to study the baking properties of flour obtained from this grain. So far, such research has not been conducted in Kazakhstan, as there is still too little grain for processing; it is currently reserved for expanding the seed stock.
- The grain is indeed small, - noted Alexey Morgunov. - If the mass of 1000 grains of regular wheat is about 35 grams, this one is around 20 grams. It’s a slender grain. This may be due to insufficient nutrients for grain filling. So our task is also to refine the proper nutrition technology for the plants. But we already see that the protein content in this wheat is below 20%, and the gluten content is below 30%.
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2 Breeders particularly emphasize an important point: cultivating perennial wheat is much more environmentally friendly than traditional wheat. The fewer soil treatments, the lower the carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
- Of course, this crop, like perennial wheat, is unlikely to become widespread, - Alexey Morgunov noted. - However, we believe it has the potential to carve out its niche as a raw material for producing truly environmentally friendly food. This is a very relevant topic in the West, where a large portion of the population is attentive to such issues. Therefore, there is a possibility of demand for food products, alongside organic products.
Alexey Morgunov added that plant breeders around the world are currently working on creating perennial legumes and oilseed crops. In China, a perennial rice has already been developed.
Interestingly, for organic farmers, growing perennial wheat could be appealing because the technologies currently being developed propose sowing wheat in strips alongside perennial leguminous crops (such as alfalfa), which will act as nitrogen accumulators in the soil. This will eliminate the need for mineral fertilizers and further enhance the ecological benefits of perennial wheat.
Next year, experiments on growing perennial wheat will also be conducted in the Kostanay region.